COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS — BANKS. 



43 



in sacks and carry it home, there to sift it at leisure. The larger 

 amount of material may be usually secured from wet localities, but 

 other forms will be found in dry places. Unpromisisng spots, though 

 not furnishing so many insects, may often give something not else- 

 where obtainable. 



Various other methods have been devised to obtain the small insects 

 found in fallen leaves, moss, etc. Hot water funnels are supplied by 

 several dealers, and a " Photo Elector" is sometimes used in Europe. 

 The latter is a flat triangular box with glass at one corner and a hole 

 near by. To this hole is attached a glass jar. A rack with a sieve is 

 placed inside, upon which is put the moss, leaves, etc. The insects 

 crawl out, fall through the sieve, and walk along the bottom to the 

 light in the glass corner, then fall through the 

 hole into the glass jar. A more elaborate 

 apparatus is the Berlese collecting cage (fig. 

 86), described by Doctor Howard as follows: 



While visiting the laboratory of Prof. Antonio Berlese 

 in Florence, in June last, I was greatly interested in an 

 apparatus which he has prepared for collecting small in- 

 sects and other arthropods very rapidly and in very 

 great numbers, and which it seemed to me obviated in 

 large measure the laborious process known to entomolo- 

 gists as "sifting." He showed me the apparatus prac- 

 tically in operation, and showed me, further, large 

 numbers of vials filled with Thysanura, Myriapoda, 

 Acarina, and the like, which in number and variety 

 afforded a perfect revelation to me. Since returning 

 to this country I have had one of the smaller styles of 

 the apparatus made, and have tested it during the 

 month of December with leaves and rubbish collected 

 on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture and 

 with very considerable success; so much so, in fact, 

 that I wish to bring the apparatus to the attention of English-speaking entomol- 

 ogists. No doubt had I used leaves or top soil of old and long undisturbed wooded 

 regions the results achieved would have been vastly greater than they have with the 

 material tested; but even this, as just stated, has been very satisfactory. Professor 

 Berlese's description and statement concerning results was published in Redia, Vol. 

 II, No. 1, shortly after my visit, and his article, very freely translated, is as follows: 



Within this last year I have devised an apparatus which is very simple and very 

 effective, with which I collect in great numbers and without fatigue, the small Arthro- 

 pods as well as insects of all the following orders: Myriapoda, Symphyla, Pauropoda, 

 Chelifera, and Arachnida, and especially Acarida, however small, uitlmut any danger 

 of being able to escape. Of the Collembola, which are so difficult to collect because 

 they spring, I have taken a very great number. 



All those living creatures which are found to be present in the mosses, among the 

 dead leaves under the trees, in decaying wood, in humus, in decomposing substances, 

 etc., are collected in a tube containing alcohol, which is attached to the apparatus 

 under discussion, and on the part of the naturalist there is no further trouble than to 

 separate them and study them. The apparatus consists of a large funnel which slides 

 into a glass tube containing alcohol and this funnel is surrounded by water heated in 



Fig. S5.— A sieve: a, Wire 



NETTING. 



